Remy, Richard C. United States Government: Democracy in Action
Remy, Richard C. United States Government: Democracy in Action.
New York: Glenco. 2008.
Chapter 2: Origins of American Government
Section 1: The Colonial Period
I. Overview
A. The legacy of self-government, first established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, enables Americans today to voice their opinions without fear of reprisal, to choose their leaders, and to take an active role in shaping the nation and communities in which they live.
II. An English Political Heritage
A. The English established and governed the original thirteen colonies along the Atlantic coast.
B. These colonists brought ideas about government that had been developing in England for centuries.
C. The colonists also adopted governing ideas from Native Americans (Iroquois League).
D. Two primary principles of government for the English:
1. Limited government.
2. Representative government.
E. Limited Government:
1. The belief that a government is not all-powerful or absolute.
2. Magna Carta (translated means “Great Charter”).
A) The English first expressed their desire for limited government in this document that limited the power of the king.
B) Later generations interpreted this document to include:
1) Providing protection against unjust punishment and the loss of life, liberty, and property except according to the law.
2) Originally the rights contained in the Magna Carta applied only to nobility.
3) Over time, opponents of absolute monarchy used the basis of this document to gain more political liberties and support for a constitutional government.
3. The Petition of Rights
A) In 1628 the English Parliament forced King Charles I to agree to severely limit his power.
B) Limits placed on the power of the King included:
1) Could not collect taxes with the consent of Parliament.
2) Imprison people without just cause.
3) House troops in private homes without the permission of the owner(s).
4) Declare martial law (military rule) unless the country was at war.
4. The English Bill of Rights
A) Came about following the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
B) Parliament removed King James II from the British throne and crowned William III and Mary II as the new king and queen.
C) William and Mary agreed to rule based upon the rules established by Parliament.
D) Passage of the English Bill of Rights.
1) Sets clear limits on what a ruler could or could not do.
2) Incorporated elements from the Magna Carta.
3) Key provisions of the English Bill of Rights include:
a) Monarchs do not have absolute authority. They rule with the consent of the people’s representatives in Parliament.
b) The monarch must have Parliament’s consent to suspend laws, levy taxes, or maintain an army.
c) The monarch cannot interfere with parliamentary elections and debates.
d) The people have a right to petition the government and to have a fair and speedy trial by a jury of their peers.
e) The people should not be subject to cruel and unusual punishment or to excessive fines and bails.
4) The American colonists were included under these rights.
5) A major cause of the American Revolution was that the colonists felt they were being deprived of these basic rights.
F. Representative Government
1. A government in which people elect delegates to make laws and conduct government.
2. The colonists firmly believed in representative government.
3. The British version of representative government:
A) The English Parliament was a representative assembly with the power to enact laws.
B) Parliament consisted of two chambers:
1) The upper chamber (The House of Lords) which was made up of the first sons of noble families.
2) The lower chamber (The House of Commons) which was elected by the people (usually merchants and landowners only).
4. American legislatures were based upon this English system of government.
III. New Political Ideas
A. The ideas and writings of seventeenth-century English philosophers deeply influence the American colonist.
B. John Lock, Voltaire, and Jean Jacques Rousseau believed that people should contract among themselves to form governments to protect their natural rights.
C. John Locke
1. Spelled out his political ideas in Two Treatises of Government in 1690.
2. The Social Contract Theory of Government.
A) In a state of nature (before the creation of governments), all people were born free, equal, and independent.
B) Natural Law – The laws of nature provided rights to life, liberty, and property.
C) If government failed to protect these natural rights, the people could change the government (also known as “the right of revolution”).
D) Locke’s writings greatly influenced Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison who regarded these ideas as political truth.
E) Locke’s writings were a revolutionary change in political philosophy in an age when monarchs still claimed that they had God-given, absolute powers.
3. Second Treatise of Government
A) Denied that people were born with an obligation to obey their rulers.
B) Government was legitimate only as long as people continued to consent to it.
C) This philosophy is reflected in the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the French Revolution.
IV. Governments in the Colonies
A. Overview
1. The thirteen English colonies were founded between 1607 and 1733.
2. Each English colony had its own government consisting of a governor, a legislature, and a court system.
3. Colonial governments established practices that became a key part of the nation’s system of government. These included:
A) A written constitution that guaranteed basic liberties and limited the power of government.
B) A legislature of elected representatives.
C) The separation of powers between the governor and the legislature.
B. Written Constitutions
1. A key feature of the colonial period was government according to a written plan.
2. Mayflower Compact (1620).
A) Stands as the first example of many colonial plans for self-government.
B) Drawn up by the Pilgrims who realized they needed rules to govern themselves if they were to survive in a new land.
C) These individuals agreed to choose their own leaders and to make their own laws.
3. General Fundamentals (1636).
A) The first basic system of laws in the English colonies.
4. Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1693).
A) America’s first formal constitution (or charter) drawn up by Puritan colonists in Connecticut.
B) Laid out a plan for government . . .
1) It gave the people the right to elect governors, judges, and representatives to make law.
C) Other colonies followed Connecticut’s lead.
5. These documents established a system of limited government and rule by law in each of the colonies.
C. Colonial Legislatures (Representative Assemblies)
1. The Virginia House of Burgesses
A) First legislature in America.
B) Established in 1619 (12 years after the founding of Jamestown, VA).
2. The impact of religion in the northern colonies.
A) The Puritans rejected the leaders of the Church of England because they were appointed by the King and not elected by their own congregations.
B) As Puritan congregations gained experience in electing their church leaders and local town officials they came to believe that church members should also be able to elect the colony’s government.
C) By the mid-1700s, most colonial legislatures had been operating for more than 100 years.
D) As a result, representative government was a well-established tradition before 1776.
E) For the most part, legislatures dominated colonial governments.
1) There was always a need for new laws as the colony grew.
2) These legislatures were examples of the “consent of the governed” because a large number of men voted.
D. Separation of Powers
1. Colonial charters divided the power of government.
A) Executive Power – Governor (King’s agent).
B) Legislature Power – Colonial legislatures.
C) Judicial Power – Colonial courts.
2. Charles-Louis Montesquieu
A) French political philosopher.
B) Wrote the book The Spirit of Laws.
C) Popularized the concept of separation of powers.
3. Though colonial legislatures and courts could be reviewed by a committee of the King’s Privy Council, the colonies practiced considerable self-government.
4. Colonial legislatures became the political training grounds for the leaders who later would write the Constitution.
Section 2: Uniting for Independence
I. Overview
A. Until the mid-1700s, Great Britain had allowed its colonies across the Atlantic to develop politically own their own.
B. By the 1760s, the British government began to tighten its grip on the colonies.
II. The Colonies On Their Own
A. As British subjects, the colonists owed allegiance to the monarch and British government.
B. The colonies were to serve as the source of raw material and a market for British goods.
C. In practice, the American colonies could do pretty much as they pleased since Britain was 3,000 miles on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
D. Colonial legislatures dealt with the everyday problems facing the colonists.
E. Over time, the colonists grew accustomed to governing themselves through their representatives.
F. The dependency upon the British by the colonists was a mutually beneficial relationship due to a hostile French presence in North America.
III. Britain Tightens Control
A. Two events changed the long standing relationship between Britain and the colonies:
1. The French and Indian War (1754-1763).
2. The Reign of King George III (1760).
B. The French and Indian War
1. Started as a struggle between the French and British over control of western Pennsylvania and Ohio.
2. Britain won the war in 1763 and gained complete control over the eastern third of the continent.
3. With the French menace removed, the colonists no longer felt that Britain was needed to protect their western boundaries.
4. The British government, saddled with a large war debt, demanded that the colonies help repay the costs of the conflict.
5. Most American colonists scoffed at the idea of paying for the war.
IV. Taxing the Colonies
A. The newly crowned King George III promised to deal firmly with the American colonies who he felt were disobedient children.
B. Taxes were levied on tea, sugar, glass, paper, and other products to pay off the war debt.
C. The Stamp Act of 1765.
1. Imposed the first direct tax on the colonists.
2. Required tax on legal documents, pamphlets, newspapers, dice, and playing cards.
D. New laws were passed restricting colonial trade to only Britain.
E. The new taxes and regulations caused Britain’s revenues to rise but also colonial resentment.
F. Political protest against the British policies grew throughout the colonies along with a boycott of British goods.
G. In 1773 the colonists stage the Boston Tea Party to protest the British tea tax.
H. Britain responses by passing the Coercive Acts / Intolerable Acts.
1. Passed by the British to punish the colonies.
2. Closed Boston Harbor to commerce.
3. Revoked Massachusetts’s self-governed colonial government.
V. Colonial Unity
A. Overview
1. Before the mid-1770s most colonists thought of themselves as British subjects.
2. Most colonists identified more strongly with their individual colony than with a national identity. (New Yorkers, Pennsylvanians, Virginians, ect).
3. Albany Plan of Union (1754).
A) Proposed by Benjamin Franklin
B) A response to French attacks on the frontier.
C) An innovative plan to unite the colonies.
D) The colonists rejected the plan because it would have given too much power to a national assembly..
4. The continuation of unpopular British policies and taxes throughout the 1760s helped to spur a growing sense of an “American” community and identify.
B. Taking Action
1. The Stamp Act Congress of 1765.
A) Nine of the colonies meet to address the growing concerns over the Stamp Act.
B) The first meeting organized by the colonies to protest King George’s actions.
C) Submitted a petition to the king arguing against unfair British taxation.
2. The Committees of Correspondence – 1773.
A) Urged resistance to the British.
B) These committees consisted of colonists who wanted to keep in touch with one another throughout all thirteen colonies as events unfolded.
C. The First Continental Congress - 1774
1. Prompted by the passage of the Intolerable Acts.
2. All colonies attended except Georgia.
3. Debated and agreed to an embargo on British goods.
4. King George III declares the colonies to be in a state of rebellion.
5. The first fighting erupted between the British and the Americans at Lexington and Concord, MA. “The Short Heard Round the World”.
D. The Second Continental Congress
1. Met after the outbreak of violence.
2. This congress assumed the powers of a central government.
3. John Hancock was chosen as president of the congress; George Washington selected as commander of the new Continental Army.
4. The Second Continental Congress served as the acting government throughout the war.
VI. Independence
A. Overview
1. Once hostilities commenced the independence movement rapidly grew.
2. Common Sense by Thomas Paine
A) Supported the cause of independence.
B) Argued that monarchy was a corrupt form of government and that George IIII was an enemy to liberty.
B. The Declaration of Independence
1. Written by Thomas Jefferson.
2. The final draft approved on July 4th, 1776.
C. Key Parts of the Declaration:
1. The purpose of the Declaration was to justify the revolution and to put forth the founding principles of the new nation.
2. No prior government had been founded on the principles of human liberty and the consent of the governed.
3. Three key sections of the Declaration:
A) Beginning Section – A statement of purpose and basic human rights.
B) Middle Section – A list of specific complaints against George III.
C) Conclusion – States the colonists’ determination to separate from Great Britain.
D. The First State Constitutions
1. Dealt with the transformation of colonies into states.
2. Each colony was instructed to form into a “state” as they best saw fit.
3. Each new state adopted its own constitution.
A) Most included a Bill of Rights.
B) All recognized the people as the sole source of authority in a limited government.
Section 3: The Article of Confederation
I. Overview
A. The first government of the United States was a confederation.
1. A loose alliance of state.
2. Weak central government / limited authority.
3. Power concentrated in the individual state legislatures.
B. A so-called “League of Friendship”?
C. The Articles were approved in March of 1781.
II. A Plan for a National Government Under the Articles.
A. Simplistic plan for a central government.
1. Unicameral (single chamber / one house) Congress.
2. Congress would select executive positions
3. Committee of the State
A) Made up of one delegate from each state.
B) Managed the government when Congress was not assembled.
4. No national court system.
5. Congress settled disputes among the states.
6. Each state had one vote in Congress no matter what its size or population.
7. Every state legislature selected its own representatives to Congress, paid them, and could recall them at any time.
8. Congress had only those powers expressed in the Articles.
9. All other powers remained with the independent states.
10. Congressional powers under the Articles included the following:
A) Make war and peace.
B) Send and receive ambassadors.
C) Enter into treaties.
D) Raise and equip a navy.
E) Maintain an army by requesting troops from the states.
F) Appoint senior military officers.
G) Fix standards of weights and measures.
H) Regulate Indian affairs.
I) Establish post offices.
J) Decide certain disputes among the states.
III. Weaknesses of the Articles
A. Created a weak national government.
B. Congress did not have the power to levy or collect taxes.
1. Could only raise money by barrowing or requesting money from the states.
2. Congress could do little if states refused to provide funds.
C. Congress did not have the power to regulate trade.
1. Disputes amongst various states.
2. It was difficult to make business arrangements with other nations.
D. Congress could not force anyone to obey the laws it passed or to abide by the Articles of Confederation.
1. The only power Congress had was to advise and request states to comply.
E. Laws needed the approval of 9 of the 13 states.
1. This made it very difficult to pass laws.
2. Each state had only one vote regardless of size.
F. Amending or changing the Articles required the consent of all states (nearly impossible).
G. The central government did not have an executive branch.
1. Most business was conducted through committees.
2. Without an executive there was no unity in policy making and no way to coordinate the work of the different committees.
H. The government had no national court system.
1. State courts enforced and interpreted national laws.
2. No national court system made it difficult for the national government to settle disputes between the states.
IV. Powers of the Sovereign States
A. To enforce or impede national government policy.
B. To control state militias.
C. To withhold or grant revenues to the national government.
D. To veto amendments to the Articles of Confederation.
E. To regulate foreign and interstate commerce.
V. Achievements of the Articles
A. The establishment of a fair policy for the development of lands west of the Appalachians.
1. This was the Articles greatest achievement.
2. Individual states ceded (or yielded) their claims to these territories to the central government (this helped to provide a focus for national unity).
3. The Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance
A) Two laws created that governed the survey, division, and eventual route to statehood for the new territories.
B. Peace Treaty with Great Britain (1783)
1. Britain recognized American independence.
2. The United States acquired new lands from the British.
A) Land from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River.
B) Land from the Great Lakes to Florida.
C. The creation of governmental departments
1. Foreign Affairs
2. War
3. Marine
4. Treasury
5. Each governed under a single permanent secretary.
6. This sets a precedent for the creation of cabinet departments under the Constitution of 1787.
D. Reciprocity Between States
1. The Articles provided that each state give “full faith and credit” to the legal acts of other states.
2. Required states to treat citizens of other states without discrimination.
3. This provision was often ignored by the states but was later enforced under a stronger U.S. Constitution.
VI. The Need for a Strong Government